Feeding Tampa Bay’s warehouse was once abuzz with Uno, Corn hollow, Connect Four, and crew development actions on Wednesday, which coincidentally marks the 3rd day of Mental Health Awareness Month. “It’s a time for us to rest, relax and recharge,” mentioned the Communications and Culture Officer Jaycee Peters. This is an strange sight at their headquarters, specifically over the previous couple of years. Volunteers and employees are most often noticed unloading or loading vans, sorting, bagging and boxing meals. However, due to the pandemic and inflation, this paintings has higher, main to important power on personnel and the group as an entire.
“One of the things that concerns me most,” CEO and President Thomas Mantz mentioned. “We are providing more meals than we have. We are providing more services than we ever have.” They prior to now provided 10 to 15 million foods a 12 months, and now that quantity has soared to 90 million foods, which continues to be inadequate. Employees and volunteers have discovered it mentally, bodily, and emotionally laborious.
“We’re not often grouped in with first responders. But, when you are out in the community serving food, or you’re trying to provide benefits to somebody who is struggling, that takes a toll,” Mantz mentioned. “You see folks who are perhaps at their worse. The other part, all of us understand to the extent that we’re good at our job, more people have food and resources.”
As their workload would possibly build up this summer time, all of the employees state that at the present time was once a very powerful. “It’s something that fills up all of our cups,” Peters mentioned. “It fills our soul to make sure we can serve the community.”